Clutch Problems - garage taking the proverbial

pinkpauline34

Hi all,

I am desperately needing some advice. In April, we bought a used Skoda from a major Scottish car dealer and have had no end of problems. The most recent fiasco has been in October, while on holiday, our clutch burnt out. The car was recovered to a local garage (in Scotland). They had the car for FOUR DAYS and fitted a new clutch at a cost of £420 for a Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDi. They didn't deliver the car back to us until 11.30 at night and we then had to drive 2.5 hours to get home for the kids to go to school the following day.

Since then, the clutch has never been right, the revs racing too high and more diesel consumption than normal. It went into a local garage last week and we were told the clutch was slipping (after a month). We phoned the garage who fitted the clutch (who is 137 miles away from home) and they sent us up a heap of a "courtesy" car and drove our car away last Thursday to their garage, 137 miles away. They are not very good at keeping us informed so we called them on Friday only to be told they had just taken the car out and confirmed the clutch was slipping. We called them yesterday to ask for an update only to be told that the part was indeed faulty and they would be replacing it and claiming back the costs from their supplier. My husband asked the proprietor of the garage to confirm that there would be no charge to us but he said "he didn't know yet". He did say he would be putting a clutch kit together and getting our car back to us asap.

We have called them again today to ask if we were likely to have the car back on Thursday as it';s booked into a local garage for a timing belt change. The mechanic we spoke to said it was unlikely as they were waiting for a fly wheel to arrive from their supplier. When the clutch was initially fitted in October, we were told the flywheel was fine. He said the parts supplier have asked for the faulty clutch and flywheel to be returned to them.

We told the mechanic we were not prepared to pay any costs incurred with fitting a new clutch nor a new flywheel as at no time were we told a flywheel had been ordered and it is certainly not something we have asked them or given consent to fit. We have only given them our car last Thursday to replace a faulty clutch kit that was only installed by them on 25 October. He told me that someone would have to pay for it! I have now just sent them an email confirming that I am not prepared to pay for anything as if their supplier wants to take the flywheel out of my car, then it is between them and their supplier and nothing to do with us. I believe they may have done further damage driving our car with a faulty clutch down to their garage.

I paid by VISA and have discovered that this doesn't give you quite the protection that it shoudl when it comes to faulty car parts.

Is there anything else I can do? I dread to think how much longer they are going to have my car and I am terrified I'm going to be lumbered with a bill that I can't afford to pay.

Can anyone advise if there's anything further I can do?

Many thanks in advance

forgotmyname

If the clutch has a Dual Mass Flywheel, That can give symptoms of a clutch slipping.

If its a standard chunk of steel flywheel then there is little to go wrong. You can glaze the surface by slipping the
clutch too much and cooking the surface. That sort of polishes it.

What type of clutch do you have?

Yeah for some fabia's you can get a slid flywheel conversion kit. Sometimes these kits are not what they
should be a can slip early.

A proper full DMF kit is the way to go.

Model / Year?

attila_

it may have got contaminated with oil/lube during fitting. If the friction plate gets impregnated with lube it will cause slip.

this would be a fitting error not manufacturing error. Ask to see the clutch - if they have given it back to manufactuter ask for their contact details.

pinkpauline34

Thanks for your responses. It's a Skoda Fabia 57 plate, 1.4 tdi. All I know is it's a 3 part clutch kit that was fitted.

He has confirmed by email that the clutch appeared, on examination, to be faulty and at the request of the supplier, they have also removed the flywheel as it had been damaged by the faulty clutch and that too has been returned to the supplier. He did say, strangely enough, that there is only one way to fit a clutch and it was fitted by a mechanic with 35 years service - interesting that as I'd never queried the installation of the clutch. He also mentioned that the car has done 1,450 miles since it was fitted in October.

He has confirmed that he now has a new clutch kit and is waiting for a new flywheel to come from Skoda as they are the only suppliers of the part (apparently). They have had my car a week tomorrow so I've imposed a time limit of next Tuesday, 6 December for the new parts to be installed and returned to me at no cost to me.